Anna Karina, French New Wave star. She was in a whole bunch of Jean-Luc Godard’s stuff, including “Band of Outsiders”, “Made in U.S.A.”, and (of course) “Alphaville“.
Gershon Kingsley, Moog guy. You perhaps knew him best as the composer of “Pop Corn”. And I was going to embed the Muppet version here, but the paper of record has saved me the effort.
I was cautiously optimistic, tending almost towards excitement, about Christmas this year. I’m mostly getting along with almost everyone, and Daddy didn’t spend the Christmas money on brakes this year. (As a matter of fact, Daddy got his car inspected without any issues, got the oil and filters changed, got a minor repair done, and Daddy’s new vehicle registration is in the mail and should get here before Christmas.)
You know what depresses me at this time of year, though? (“Almost everything!” cries the peanut gallery.) They’re not too far off. But one thing that gets under my skin is car wrecks.
We live in a part of town where car wrecks are a distressingly common sight. The roads are heavily trafficked and carrying more than designed capacity. But car wrecks at Christmas really get me down.
I see someone with the whole front end of their car smashed to heck: obviously, this is a total loss. The ambulance is standing around nearby, and even if it doesn’t look like anyone was badly hurt, I’m thinking to myself what a shame it is. The kids were looking forward to that Playstation 5 (sorry, Playstation V) or the XBox 720 (“now with tint control!”) or the new Banana PCJR Pro, Mom goes out to the grocery store, and both parents come home hours later. “Sorry, kids. No Christmas this year. The car’s totaled and we’ve got to get a new one.”
I know I’m probably stretching a little: out here, I think everyone has comprehensive on their cars, and they’re probably not out more than the deductible (and the gap, if they don’t have gap insurance). But it still bothers me.
The other problem out here, oddly enough, is deer. The hooved rodents are belligerent and numerous, there’s strong opposition to doing anything about them (“They’re so cute! How dare you trap them!”), and people frequently have unpleasant encounters with them, even on heavily trafficked roads like RM 620 or SH 71. Our next door neighbor hit one a few weeks ago: it didn’t do a lot of damage from what I could tell, but her car was in the shop for a bit.
Last night, it was my turn. We were driving back from dinner down a two-lane road that’s a shortcut between US 290 towards Dripping and SH 71 towards Lakeway/Bee Cave when one bounded across the road in front of us. I saw it out of the corner of my eye as it was crossing the road towards the driver’s side but didn’t even have time to react: we clipped it pretty solidly on the passenger side.
The good news is, the car’s driveable: there’s some loose plastic around the passenger side wheel, and a fairly large dent in what I’d call the under-bumper. But there’s no hood damage, the headlights still work, and I think the front running light on that side does as well. There’s no evidence that the engine compartment took a hit, and I don’t see any fluids leaking. And the airbags didn’t go off.
I know it could have been a lot worse: we could have hit it square on and done more damage, it could have ended up going through the windshield into the passenger compartment…as I said, the car’s driveable, we have coverage, and Mom’s calling the insurance company Monday morning. We may even have dashcam footage if I can find it.
I guess what I’m trying to say this holiday season is: be careful. Look both ways. Turn with a light when you can, even if it takes you a little out of your way. Don’t pull a U-turn in the middle of the highway.
And if you’re in an area where it is hunting season and you have a license, take as many deer as you legally can.
It’s a store. That sells pecans. He does wholesale and mail order all year, but he has a retail store (buried in the back of a strip center off of 183, next to an animal hospital) that’s open during the holiday season.
His selection is amazing: Tennessee Honey or Jack Daniels flavored pecans? Got them. Amaretto chocolate? Dark chocolate? Milk chocolate? Cajun? Just plain ones for baking? Got it all. Looking to ship a sampler to someone? Just go in: he’ll take care of the packing and shipping. All you need is an address (and payment).
We’ve been there twice since the season started, picking up pecans for ourselves and to ship to relatives. The thing that finally pushed me into writing an endorsement, though, is this: Mark, the guy who runs the place (origin story here) is incredibly nice and flexible. It seems like everything we asked for (and granted, we didn’t ask for anything really exotic and outlandish), his response was, “Sure, I can do that,” as well as, “Sure, I can get those in the mail today. I’m going to the post office anyway.”
This is another one of those people who I want to have trouble sleeping at night: because all of those $100 bills stuffed in his bedding are making too much noise.
My impression is that he’s going to be open next week (if you want to do last minute shopping), closed Christmas week, and will be open again January 2nd. After the first of the year, he plans to have a fire sale to clean out inventory until he opens up again next winter.
If you don’t have a convenient Knights of Columbus branch selling nuts, or even if you do, throw some business Mark’s way. I want these people to stay around and prosper: they’re really good folks.
(I didn’t get anything for writing this endorsement. Not even free samples. I just wrote it because I really like Mark, and his store.)
RoadRich has tipped me off to the death of the great Danny Aiello, but I think I want to wait until tomorrow to post obits, just so things have a chance to shake out.
More random gun crankery.
I’ve written before about a couple of my silly gun ideas. I came up with another one a couple of days ago, and thought it’d be interesting to maintain a place to document them. Just in case I win the lottery or something. There’s no real point, or practical purpose, for most of these: they’re more “I think it would be amusing to have…”
I’m open to hearing other people’s ideas, if you care to leave a comment. I’m also open to comments from people who know more about gunsmithing than I do, especially comments along the lines of “You can’t do that, and here’s why…”
Philip McKeon, who you may remember as Alice’s son Tommy on “Alice”. I had no idea he lived in Wimberly (which is a short drive from where I live), or that he was doing a radio show. (Hattip: RoadRich.)
Leonard Goldberg, noted television producer. He collaborated with Aaron Spelling on “Fantasy Island” and “Charlie’s Angels”, and went on to produce “Blue Bloods”.
I don’t watch much TV, especially network TV, but I have a feeling I should start watching “Blue Bloods”.
Lawrence sent over an obit for Tatsuo Umemiya, Japanese actor. I’m not familiar with his work, but he was highly prolific in Japan: 203 credits as an actor between 1959 and 2013.
Col. Cooper, call your office, please.
Scout rifles. You know, for kids. Seen at Cabela’s over the weekend.
(Okay, technically, it isn’t a true Scout rifle. Beyond the fact that it is a toy gun, it is also lever action, while a true Scout would be a bolt gun. Cooper discussed the possibility of a lever action Scout, but I believe he considered that a pseudo-Scout. Also, I’m not clear what “caliber” it is “chambered” in. On the other hand, it probably does make weight and length for a Scout, and it does have the Scout style “scope” and mount…)
(Semi-related stupid. By way of Mike the Musicologist.)
Speaking of semi-related stupid, I could spend a lot of time and effort, and increase my blood pressure, by going after the latest stupid statement about guns from Art “Dammit” Acevedo.
But I don’t have to, because Lawrence sent me this handy Twitter thread that does the same thing.
Hey fuckface, you know what might have saved your Sgt.? Putting this piece of shit away before it came to this. But nope, you’re gonna bloviate on tv about how this turd ignored allllllllll the other laws but DEFINITELY would have obeyed one more gun law. Mmmmk. pic.twitter.com/OviDEfPKS7
— I Am Leah (@Bossy_Leah) December 10, 2019
But of course Art’s department was busy executing innocent civilians.
Speaking of the elusive MtM:
I wanted to title this “The Hat Squad”, but I got the picture back, and…where’s my hat? Obviously, I had it on in the other photo, but why wasn’t I wearing it in this one? And what did I do with it?
Jim Montgomery out as head coach of the Dallas Stars (who are apparently a hockey team).
The wowser here is not that he’s out, but the reason: it wasn’t his won/loss record.
[Stars GM Jim] Nill told reporters at an 11 am news conference that he was made aware of a “material act of unprofessionalism” over the weekend. The incident occurred last week and he received a phone call about it on Sunday.
He said there was an internal investigation into the incident and that it was he made the decision to fire Montgomery after consulting with general counsel.
Nill clarified there was no criminal investigation involved and that the incident didn’t involve any current or past players. But he also reiterated that he won’t discuss specifics of the incident out of respect for everyone involved. Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and John Klingberg all told reporters on Tuesday that Stars players were not told what happened with Montgomery.
…everywhere you go.
Hattip to Nicholas Vedros (@nicholasvedros) and Sportsman’s Finest (@sportsmansfinest) for the photos. (Yes, there’s more than one. I may post a second one tomorrow, if Mike the Musicologist approves.)
René Auberjonois, versatile actor. He’s getting a lot of attention for his roles in Altman’s “MASH”, “Benson”, and some minor SF TV show, but he did a lot of movies and TV: “Rockford Files”, “Richie Brockelman, Private Eye”, “Mrs. Columbo” (but oddly not “Columbo”)…the list goes on.
Caroll Spinney is also getting a lot of coverage, but noted here for the record.
Paul Volcker, former chair of the Federal Reserve.
Ron Leibman, another one of those highly versatile actors in movies, television, and theater.
Finally, Winston Lawson. he was the Secret Service agent who did the advance work for Kennedy’s Texas trip, rode in the motorcade, and helped load the president onto the stretcher at Parkland.
By way of Lawrence, breaking news: David Fizdale out as head coach of the 4-18 New York Knickerbockers. He was 21-83 overall in less than two seasons.
His .201 winning percentage goes down as the worst of any coach in franchise history.